Less Repenting, More Conditioner
by Lokinette
Summary: Vincent has many things on his mind, and brushing his hair is not one of them. Yuffie intends to change that, by force if necessary. Yuffentine Feedback greatly appreciated. :


_Something possessed me to write this... I had been wanting to write a Yuffentine fic for a while, and then I somehow got thinking about Vincent's hair... Anyway, I hope you enjoy it, and please review! I appreciate all feedback. :) I don't own Final Fantasy or it's characters, etc.  
_

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It was dusk, and the first pricks of starlight filtered through vermillion clouds to the city of Edge, which rested below their radiance. Crimson eyes traced the dull lights, though their owner's thoughts were far from the depth and purity of the cosmos. Everything would be as it should be, soon... Beyond the scars upon man-made fortresses that had been caught up in the attacks, there were no traces of the battles he and the others had overcome mere weeks ago. It was time he returned to his wanderings... To-

"Hey, Vince!"

He was pulled, or rather yanked, from his thoughts by a familiar voice. An impatient, persistent, hyper, yet somehow welcome voice.

He turned, his expression unchanging, to face Yuffie. He didn't speak, for he knew the silence would not remain for long in her presence.

"Where ya going?" she began, fidgeting in a bored fashion as she awaited a reply.

She was unquestionably certain that Vince was, in fact, going somewhere. He never stayed put for any fair amount of time unless he was needed for something. Yuffie had spent the last few years trying to keep in touch with the members of AVALANCHE and the others who had traveled with them to stop Meteor. Vincent was always the hardest to reach. Up until he had been persuaded to help the WRO recently, she had hardly heard from him at all since he had separated from the group three years ago. She had a life of her own, of course, but Wutai never had kept her busy for long. She felt that somehow, she couldn't let him run off to who-knows-where again, perhaps to never return.

Vincent couldn't give a true answer. He didn't have a specific destination in his thoughts. He would simply roam Gaia, for there was something about resting in a single place that did not seem fitting for one such as himself.

"To think," he said at last, if only to offer a response of some kind to the waiting Yuffie.

"So... why can't you think here?" the listener stated matter-of-factly.

The older of the two simply offered a low, exasperated sigh, taking a slow step away from the other. They were standing near the entrance to the Seventh Heaven bar, where Vincent had arrived earlier in the day to inform his comrades of the current state of Chaos, Omega, and the planet.

"Hey..." the girl's voice returned.

Vincent half-turned his head to cast a sideways glance at his companion

"Do you ever _brush_ that hair?"

The man didn't know whether such an inquiry was truly a surprise. Now that he thought of it, Yuffie had been almost uncharacteristically... non-intrusive since they had reunited during the trouble with Deepground.

"Seriously, it's so long... and... tangled. For all the time you've clearly got on your hands to spend thinking, you could pull out a hairbrush every now and then..." she elaborated, rolling her eyes teasingly.

He knew what she was implying, of course. Though at first glance, Yuffie may have seemed as though she were somewhat air-headed, and with little to offer in the way of an attention-span, he knew she truly did stop to think about things. She wanted him to come to the present. To stop moping, repenting, grieving, and whatever else she had concluded that his life must have consisted of. In many ways, he wondered how correct she was in her analysis.

"Of course, for a guy who didn't even have a phone until about a year ago... I guess it's to be expected..."

"Yuffie," Vincent returned her words at last.

"What?" she feigned annoyance at her ramblings being interrupted, but she was clearly glad to hear his voice.

"You're right," he said shortly, vague undertones of fondness in his voice.

Yuffie stared at him incredulously, as one might stare at a forty-foot chocobo. Finally, she smirked. Maybe Vince was getting closer to leading a semi-non-depressing life all the time.

"Glad to make you see the gaps in your grooming habits! Now... just hang on a sec! I'll know if you try to run off while I'm gone!" with this warning, Yuffie bounded into Seventh Heaven.

Through the open windows of the building, Vincent could hear the swift pounding of the soles of Yuffie's boots as she ascended the stairway. This was followed by what sounded like things being hastily rummaged through in the upstairs bedroom. There was a clatter, as though the contents of a drawer had been unintentionally spilled onto a hard, wooden surface. After this (and with no pause to clean up whatever it was that had been dropped), there were more less-than-stealthy footsteps, ultimately leading to the door being flung open by a breathless but triumphant Yuffie. In one hand, she clumsily clutched what appeared to be one of Tifa's hairbrushes.

She proceeded to march up to Vincent and scrutinize his locks for a moment or two.

"I can tell this is gonna take a while..." her voice was laced with jesting tones of aggravation, as though it was somehow her duty to see to his hair's well-being.

"What do you-" Vincent began apprehensively, before his answer cam in the form of a sharp tug on a tuft of his tresses. Yuffie had grabbed a handful of hair and was attempting to brush it for him.

"You didn't think I'd trust you to take care of it on your own time, did you? I know you better than that! Sit down or something... This is harder to do when you're towering over me!" the kunoichi retorted, forced to extend her arms in order to reach the top of his scalp.

Between his shock, Vincent managed to find room in his thoughts for ponderings of whether he found this even vaguely acceptable or not. He was too off-guard to resist just yet, but he was uncertain of whether he would allow this to continue. He supposed that after everything that had happened, and after all she had done for him, she had earned at least a bit of time to annoy him.

Finally, he conceded to Yuffie's will and sat down on one of the lower steps of the entry. Yuffie took her place a few steps above him and resumed her task.

"Man... You really _haven't _ever bothered to brush your hair, have you?" the younger lamented as she worked her way through his unkempt hair, her actions becoming somewhat gentler as she continued; still painful, but gentler.

"Maybe I've had... too much time on my hands," he remarked, wincing faintly as she continued to forcefully detangle his locks.

Yuffie didn't respond immediately. Vince was somehow different. He was less distant, almost, but there was something beyond that, as well...

"I guess laying around in a coffin for thirty years is kind of overkill... even for you," she recalled.

"I was... having nightmares," he continued in a monotone.

"Y'know, most people _wake up_ when they have a nightmare..."

"I guess I 'was always different'" he mused dryly, remembering Yuffie's words after she had saved him from certain death at the hands of one of the Tsviets.

"Well, that can't always be a bad thing! I mean, you took out all those Deepground SOLDIERS, and you don't have a scratch! Keep it up, and you may one day reach my level of expertise in the way of the warrior..."

:"Are you sure you want that?" Vincent questioned, a slight note of humor to his tone.

"Well... Maybe you can't hope to _quite_ attain my degree of mastery... but you're still pretty good."

"Hn."

"What does_ that_ mean? You don't honestly think you're ready to fight me as you are now?"

Vincent smirked almost invisibly at her banter, enjoying her company. He hadn't felt this way in decades... not since a dreamlike time, before his sins had consumed him. He wondered fleetingly if Yuffie had ever felt tied down by her past, as he had. She was, or had been, the runaway princess of a land ravaged and demoralized by the loss of an almost one-sided war. It was difficult and nearly humorous to imagine her acting as he had, yet he knew she was deeper than she let on. He would make an effort, now that he had found closure. He would create no further sins where it was preventable.

"Yuffie... How's Wutai?"

Yuffie relented from her task momentarily, and Vincent could detect her surprise. She set to work once more, slowly at first, though gradually working up to her former pace.

"Well... It's definitely doing a lot better than it was when my dad turned it into tourist attraction... Mostly... no... all thanks to me, of course! I mean, if I hadn't beaten some sense back into him at the pagoda, he'd probably have turned the palace into a souvenir shop by now! But... most of the damage done by Deepground is cleaned up, if that's what you mean..."

"Good," the word held a note that assured his addressee that he did, in fact, have in interest in what she had said.

"Yeah... Dad and the other warriors from the pagoda survived, but we lost some people, too... So we're shorthanded with the reconstruction... Wutai was already recovering from the war with Shinra, too... I would've liked to help defend it... but... y'know... I had to save you from your demise and whatnot," Yuffie responded, her last words teasing. She was making an effort to keep their conversation light.

"I'm sorry."

"Hey! If you spent more time comparing brands of conditioner and less time apologizing for things that aren't your fault, we'd both be better off right now!" the girl retorted with a particularly savage swipe of her brush.

Vincent winced, but acknowledged her meaning. It was difficult, after all of this time, to see a life unburdened. He couldn't imagine how Yuffie maintained her upbeat attitude, given all that happened to her and the others. Even Cloud had an improved outlook, having overcome his own past demons. Vincent couldn't imagine himself ever becoming quite like Yuffie, of course... but facing the future was feasible. He would have to learn.

"Y'know... they sell better conditioner in Edge than they do in the middle of the Sleeping Forest...," his companion elaborated, her tone taking on a somewhat more sorrowful tone.

"Where?" he would play along, if only to brighten her spirits.

"Well... They just opened a place about three blocks from here... It was called... umm... Aah, I can't remember! You'll know it when you see it... I think," Yuffie shot back enthusiastically.

"I'll look," was the elder of the two's reply.

"Not without me, you won't! I want to remember what it was called now, anyway... and you _might_ not know it at first glance... It's kind of gray... and dismal looking. So... I guess it does kind of blend right in...," the younger insisted, clumsily detangling a snarl with her fingers.

"Are you going back to Wutai to help with the reconstruction?" Vincent changed the subject, seeing further discussion of the former topic futile.

Yuffie couldn't imagine the old Vincent saying these things... asking about her or what she was doing... Whatever had happened, it was an improvement. She worked through his tangled locks for a bit longer in silence, unsure of both her answer and her feelings. She was making progress with his hair, at least; it was about two-thirds combed through.

She wondered if she had anything to do with him opening up, as well. It could have just been that Chaos was no longer dwelling within him. It _would_ be pretty depressing to have a harbinger of death trapped inside you... Somehow, that didn't seem like it was the only thing that had caused this change, though...

"I guess... probably. I've been teaching the kids back home Wushu, you know! Our ninja armies will be restored to their former glory soon! Even better, with a prodigy like me to teach the new generation!" she raised her voice to a spirited shout towards the end.

Vincent could only imagine. Wutai would be... a force to be reckoned with.

"What about you, Vince? You've _got_ to have a better plan than 'thinking'."

Plans were never something he had been good with. He had become a Turk in his youth, gone on a fair amount of missions, and finally been assigned as a bodyguard. After that... well, that was when fate had started making his plans for him. Fate... and perhaps even his own nature... had been laying out their undetectable maps ever since. He wasn't sure how he felt about the place those maps had led him. Come to think of it, he had hardly ever considered 'here' and 'now'. He considered these things in a fight or other quick-thinking situation, certainly, but never in a sense of the current state of his life. Was he pleased? Not with the past, perhaps, but with the place it had all led him? Would he change things? Could he really have, if he'd known of what was to come? In the end... did it matter? Would it not all be washed away, when the true time for Omega's flight came?

Regardless of his answers, all that he even had a chance of changing was the future.

"To Wutai."

Yuffie, who had been working through the last patch of tangles, nearly dropped the brush.

"Wha... Why?"

Maybe she _had_ influenced him, somehow. Maybe all the messages she had left on his cell-phone, upon her learning he had acquired one, had been listened to. Not answered, but heard, at least. It wasn't that she had thought he didn't care about her or the others... but she had always doubted whether she held any influence over him, or if he ever took her seriously. It was her thoughts, now, that were interrupted by the other's words.

"It's as good a place to think as any."


End file.
